


Trust, Not Like

by Dadzawa



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Aqua Curses A Lot, Enemies to Rivals, Gen, Kairi (mentioned) - Freeform, Keyblade Master Aqua (Kingdom Hearts), King Mickey (mentioned), Master Yen Sid (mentioned), Roxas (mentioned) - Freeform, Sora (mentioned) - Freeform, Ventus (mentioned) - Freeform, Xion (mentioned) - Freeform, but all i do is gloss over aqua and lea defeating heartless, i wasn’t sure so i tagged it just to be safe, let her be a pottymouth nomura you COWARD, lmk if the explicit violence tag is warranted or not, why is that not a tag yet???? fuck it if u want somethin done u gotta do it urself I fuckin guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25662109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dadzawa/pseuds/Dadzawa
Summary: Aqua doesn’t like Lea. She can’t even say she truly trusts him…yet.
Relationships: Aqua & Lea (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8





	Trust, Not Like

**Author's Note:**

> I almost cried while on public transit for this fic plz enjoy :3

Aqua knew how important it was for them to have as many Wielders of Light as possible. Xehanort might have been defeated, but that didn’t mean their work was done–there were still worlds lost to darkness, Maleficent was still unaccounted for, and Heartless were still threatening everywhere, among other things. So, yeah–she knew better than to look a gift Keyblade wielder in the past. 

That didn’t mean she liked Lea. Everyone she asked about him gave wildly conflicting accounts: Ventus said he was a fun, outgoing guy, Kairi said he kidnapped her once, Roxas said he spent their entire friendship lying to and withholding information from him and Xion constantly, and Sora…

Well. She never got the chance to get Sora’s opinion. 

In any case, nothing she heard persuaded her to like him, and her trust in him was based mostly on the fact that she trusted Master Yen Sid and the king more. Nothing she saw changed her opinion, either…

Until one mission.

Lea, Roxas, and she had been sent to clear out a nest of Heartless in the Toy Box that turned out to be far larger than Master Yen Sid thought it was. Regardless, they were holding their own, slowly but surely eliminating Heartless. At least, they were until Roxas went down with a sharp cry of pain. Aqua tensed, opening her mouth to call for Lea to heal him, but another wave of Heartless interrupted her. A spike of panic shot through her, in time with the wall of fire that sprang up between them and her. Her years of training took over, sending her cartwheeling backwards and spinning around to face whatever high-level Heartless cast that spell–but it was just Lea. Lea, whose face was suffused with cold rage. Lea, who spun one of his twin flaming chakrams– _chakrams?_ –at his side while the other arced back to him, trailing flame in its wake. 

“Aqua, heal him. I’ll take care of the nest.”

“Lea, wait!” But he ignored her and walked through the fire, and Aqua saw the first telltale hearts of dead Heartless floating up almost immediately. “Fuckhead,” she spat under her breath, running to where Roxas’ small form lay on the ground. “Life,” she whispered, holding her hands over the nasty gashes in his side. Within seconds they closed, her blue-tinted magic washing them away like he’d never gotten hurt in the first place. His breathing evened out, but he still didn’t wake up. Healing finished, Aqua looked from Roxas to the wall of flames and the sounds of fierce combat beyond. She chewed on her lip, glanced at Roxas once more, then summoned her armor and followed Lea through the fire. 

Regardless of how she felt about him, Aqua couldn’t deny Lea was one of the most skilled fighters she’d ever seen. He was fast, ankle-breakingly agile, and used fire magic like it was as natural as breathing; he cut his way through swathe after swathe of Heartless like they were nothing more dangerous than wheat stalks. Even so, Aqua could see the exhaustion from maintaining the defensive inferno and simultaneously soloing an entire fucking nest weighing him down. As she watched, a small contingent of Soldiers pounced while he was occupied with one of the mechas. She shot a flurry of ice at them before Lea could get hurt, then used the frost trail on the ground to skate closer and intercept yet another squad mobilizing to his left.

“Lea, you fucking idiot!” she yelled as they fought. “You should’ve left the nest to me and healed Roxas yourself!”

“Aw, but you’re so much better at healing than I am, _Master_ ,” he snarked back, Keylade back in sword form. Between the two of them, and with the nest already decimated, the fight didn’t take much longer. Aqua slashed Stormfall across the last Shadow and watched its heart float up and disappear before she dismissed her armor and Keyblade and turned to face Lea again. 

“The degree of skill matters less than how quickly it can get done, Lea. You were closer, you should’ve healed him and let me defend you two instead of rushing in alone like an absolute fucking _dumbass—_ ”

“By ‘you heal so much better than me’, I meant you can actually heal, Aqua,” he interrupted. “I’m a highly skilled man, it’s true, but healing spells aren’t in my extensive catalogue of abilities yet. Got it memorized?”

“...I see.” She paused for a moment and assessed him, then continued, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize Master Yen Sid hasn’t taught you how to heal yet.”

He shrugged. “I know the theory, just not the execution. So, how is he?”

“Roxas will be fine. You, however..” she trailed off as Lea dismissed his Keyblade and immediately swayed on his feet. “You need to get your ass back to Master Yen Sid’s before you pass out.”

“Y-yeah, maybe you’re right…”

She rolled her eyes and brushed past him to pick Roxas up. “I’m not carrying you.”

* * *

A few days later, she was in Twilight Town on her day off. It was a quiet, lively place, made beautiful from the way the light warmed the stones and the little pops of color from gardens and people. She stopped to buy some sea salt ice cream from a street vendor, and was in the middle of deciding whether she wanted to wander around and eat it or find a spot to sit and enjoy her ice cream when she spotted Lea breezing down a side street, dressed in a long dark robe like the ones she’d seen the Norts wear. With a sigh of regret, she tossed her ice cream aside and followed him. Oddly enough, none of the townspeople seemed to notice him, even though he definitely stood out from the tips of his spiky red hair to the flowing hem of his distinctive black robes. She trailed him through twisty side streets and dim back alleys to a hole in the town wall. As he cast a final glance over his shoulder, Aqua ducked behind a corner and caught her breath. When she looked again, he was gone. She let another minute pass before following him through the hole. 

Beyond the wall was a forest, thick with trees and flowering bushes. Sunlight filtered through the green leaves overhead, casting patterns of light and shadow over the forest floor that shifted with the breeze. The only sound was the wind in the leaves, and there was no sign of Lea anywhere. Aqua picked a direction and started walking, not knowing what she was looking for. She walked until a stone wall poked through the trees, and she dimly heard the sounds of a Heartless attack on the other side. She dashed forwards, Keyblade in hand, and froze when she saw Lea standing in the center of five attacking Heartless, Keyblade in hand, not making a single move to either attack or defend. He didn’t notice her, and as she watched he finally raised his Keyblade. He didn’t look like he was attacking, though–he simply raised it towards the sky and a small bubble of flame sprouted at the tip. It flew up, then crashed back to the ground in a wave of fire. She covered her eyes as the heat blasted her in the face, and when she opened them again she saw only Lea and a circle of floating hearts. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” she called as the hearts disappeared, stepping through the mansion gates. Lea jumped and spun around, dramatically clutching at his heart. 

“Heckraising Heartless, Aqua, warn a guy before you sneak up on him like that,” he grumbled, pulling a Potion out of his pocket and downing it in one go. “And what does it look like I’m doing? I’m exterminating Heartless.”

Aqua raised an eyebrow. “On your day off?”

“Ehehe, well y’see—”

“Cut the shit, Lea. What are you doing?”

He took a deep breath and held it for a long moment, face contorting, then Aqua saw the way his shoulders slumped as he slowly exhaled.”I’m trying to teach myself how to heal.”

She frowned. “I thought Master Yen Sid would teach you how?”

He shook his head. “He tried. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Kairi can heal almost as well as you can. I can summon lightning, make a barrier, heck I can even mess with gravity two out of every ten tries, but healing is apparently too hard for me.” With a huff, he sat where he was and leaned back onto his arms. “I’ve tried, over and over and over and _over_ again, but whenever I try—” he stretched an arm towards a bush and snapped his fingers, and the bush burst into flames,”—that happens. I didn’t want to risk it with Roxas,” he sighed, letting his arm flop back down. “So, I figure if I can’t heal the training dummies or my friends, I may as well try and heal myself. Emphasis on _try_.”

She nodded, once, then turned and plunged into the forest. “Follow me.”

“Wh–hey, Aqua!”

She paused and glanced over her shoulder to see Lea, still sitting, twisted around to face her. “Do you want to learn how to fucking heal, Lea?”

“Yes, b—”

“Then stop bitching and follow me.” Without another word, she resumed her course, and after a beat she heard Lea scramble up and follow after her. She led him deep into the forest around Twilight Town, following the subtle trails of Heartless until they were in a clearing outside a small nest. “You have Ethers, right?”

“Yeah, Potions too: why?” he replied, opening his coat to reveal bottle after bottle of Potions and Ethers lining the inside. 

“Perfect. Give me all your Potions.”

He didn’t move, just leveled a long look at her, one she met squarely. “Why are you doing this? You don’t even like me.”

“That’s true,” she acknowledged. “But I am a Keyblade Master, and I am duty-bound to guide and to teach novice wielders who are struggling in some aspect of their powers. Now, give me all your fucking Potions.” Wordlessly, and without breaking eye contact, Lea unclipped each and every Potion bottle one by one by one and handed them to her. When the last one was in her hands, she said, “I’ll pay you back,” and smashed them on the ground at their feet with no fanfare. Lea cried out in distress as the dozen or so Potions broke open and soaked into the grass. “Listen to me carefully, Lea. For this lesson, you are not allowed to attack. You are not allowed to use items other than Ethers. You are not allowed to cast any magic except healing magic. I will be doing nothing except attacking the Heartless.” She waited to say her final piece until he was looking her in the eye again. “”I do not like you, and I doubt I ever will. However,” she lay as much emphasis on the word as she could, “I trust you with my life. Don’t let me die, Lea.”

And without another word, she turned and strode straight into the nest, summoning Stormfall with a casual flick of her wrist. She ignored Lea behind her and got to work, vaporizing half a dozen in as many seconds. Once she had their attention, she stayed on the defensive, letting them slash and bite and burn her as much as they wanted. “Don’t you dare,” she shouted as she caught a glimpse of Lea preparing to charge in out of the corner of her eye. “If you want to fucking help, heal me when I need it!” _Like now, now would be a good fucking time to get some healing._

Physical combat wasn’t Aqua’s forte—she was more than proficient, of course, but she was far more skilled in spellcraft than swordplay. Even so, she could solo a nest that size with no trouble if she tried. And try she did–well, she tried to not kill everything in one shot, tried to take as much damage as she could to get Lea to heal, and maybe she did a better job of it than she should’ve. When she turned around, there was nothing but massing Shadows and Soldiers–she could barely see Lea, still standing where she left him, surrounded by burnt patches of grass. She met his panicked gaze through the Heartless and grinned, panting through her teeth as she blocked another attack. 

“Aqua!” he yelled.

“I trust you,” she called back through the gathering darknesses. “Don’t let me die.” Then there were too many, obscuring Lea completely and blocking out the sky. For a brief moment, there was nothing but the solid emptiness of the Heartless around her. Aqua felt her chest constrict at how horribly familiar it felt to be in such utter darkness. 

And then there was light, light and glorious, wonderful heat in the form of golden flames that utterly incinerated any Heartless they touched. The gilded inferno blasted a path from Lea to her, dancing harmlessly over and past Aqua and continued to incinerate the Heartless behind her as well, all the way to the complete opposite side of the nest. For a heartbeat, nothing moved: then the remaining Heartless melted into shadows and disappeared.

“Aqua, I-I did it,” Lea whispered in awe. Only then did she look down at herself and realize he was right: all her wounds had disappeared, only soft curls of warm steam remaining where they had been. 

“The shape of your healing was...unorthodox, to say the fucking least, but you certainly did,” she replied, dismissing Stormfall and moving to stand in front of Lea. “Do you know why I structured the lesson like this?”

“...Because nobody is allowed to be self-sacrificing except for you?”

Glaring, she summoned a tiny bolt of lightning to zap him on the back of his neck.

“Ow!”

“Because _sometimes,_ wielders need to learn how it feels to heal another before they can learn how it feels to heal themselves. So, Lea—” he looked up at the change in tone, hand still rubbing away the sting at the back of his neck, “—that feeling–the origin, flow, and release of the magic you used to heal–got it memorized?”

He seemed stunned to be on the receiving end of his catchphrase for once, then snorted and straightened up again. “Yeah, I think I do. Thank you for the lesson, Master,” he said as he bowed.

She frowned. “You don’t seriously think we’re done here, do you?” The stupefied look on his face told her he did. Sighing, she said, “One semi-successful exercise does not a lesson make, dumbass. You cast magic that healed, sure, but it was unrefined and affected more than just the person you were trying to heal. A successful lesson would result in you learning how to properly direct your healing magic. Come, we still have a few hours of daylight, and I _know_ you have plenty of Ethers.”

“Wh– b– y—”

“Lea,” she interrupted his stammering, “are you fucking coming?” The fight went out of him, and she could pinpoint the exact moment he accepted his fate.

“Yes, Master.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so uhhh this is my first kh fanfic, like EVER, which is fuckin ridiculous considering that I’ve been playing kh since I was, like, 7. Please feel free to leave a comment here or hmu on [ tumblr](https://extreme-technicality.tumblr.com) and let me know what yalls think!!!


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